Community builders a la Christine

I went to Christine Dold's presentation on community builders in her classroom, and the practice seemed so infectious I wanted to try it in my own. All of my students feel like they know each other pretty well, but I wanted to try to ease them into a fun activity. We did a rock paper scissors train at the beginning of class. It was really fun, quick, engaging, and most of all, got them out of their seats. This students are really unique, as they asked "why" we were doing this a lot. These high achievers always need a reason! I didn't have a great answer for them! However, I used their original partners from RPS to do an activity in the future. I think I'll do something like this once a week--it's fun to see them have fun that isn't so serious, like academics. I also like to take them by surprise and do something for seemingly no reason at all!